Blood Like Chains
by Tameh Ansho
Summary: No matter how hard she tried to tell herself it wasn't true, she really was her fathers daughter. Spoilers for Misplaced.


**Disclaimer: If I owned Young Justice, we wouldn't have had to wait until March for new episodes.**

**Warning: This has spoilers for Misplaced!**

The disappearances…This whole circumstance…If Zatanna hadn't been able to locate the focal point of Klarions magic, Artemis could have believed the League had put them in another one of their virtual-reality simulations. There was something surreal about the entire ordeal, as though a part of her just couldn't quite believe it was reality. It wasn't until after, after the dimensions had been reunited and Nabu had stolen Zatara's body, after the weightless feeling of surrealism had drifted away, that Artemis finally realized the feeling behind the sensation. She was relieved.

Imagine…Green Arrow, the man who had replaced her shit-pile of a father…Her mother, so recently given back to her…Batman, the first to give her a chance despite her less than stellar past…All of them simply gone before her very eyes, and she could only bring herself to feel relieved.

_(When she was nine, Artemis promised herself that she would never be like her father.)_

The reactions among the team were obvious. The second they returned to the Cave, Wally had sped to the Zeta tubs and disappeared in a blinding flash of light, the echoes of the computer announcing his departure the only indication the speedster had been there in the first place. M'gann had flown instantly into her uncles arms, sobbing with joy as she clung tight to the older Martian. Robin had been standing by his mentor with an indifferent air, though it didn't take a highly-trained eye to see the tension ebbing from the Dynamic Duo. Kaldur had left almost as fast as Wally, taking the second Zeta tube to Atlantis. Superboy had stood to the side awkwardly; he had no parents to hug gratefully, no mentor or guardian to worry about when the adults all disappeared. Instead, he smiled gently at Black Canary, glad to see his pseudo-mother alive and well, even if he wasn't quite sure how to show it.

Artemis was a different story all together. As the Team reunited with their family and mentors, she hid back in the shadows. That was, after all, where she was most comfortable. She didn't flinch when Black Canary scanned the room, the older blondes eyes wide with worry as she looked for that familiar green costume and wild mane of golden hair; Artemis was confident that Dinah's eyes would slide right over her hiding spot, which they did several times. Nor did she react when the computer announced Green Arrows arrival; she never once said a word as her mentor burst into the room, asking in a loud voice-laced with concern and hints of panic-where she was. She just…She couldn't bring herself to greet them, couldn't school her features into betraying anything but disappointment. How could she go out there and hug them, tell them how she was glad they were okay? How could she ever face them when the relief of the adults' disappearance still weighed heavily on her mind?

_(She may have his blood in her body, and may look so much like him, but she swore she would never become him.)_

It was only after the room had cleared and Green Arrow and Black Canary had finally given up on finding her that she pulled herself from the nook she had been hiding in and made her way to the Zeta tube. The walk home from the dilapidated telephone booth that was her transporter was a long one, but Artemis couldn't bring herself to mind. A part of her, the miniscule voice in the back of her mind that always sounded so like her fathers, whispered that the reunion had been nothing more than a dream. _Nothing changed_, it murmured softly. _You'll open the door to find an empty apartment, and no matter how hard you try to be afraid or sad, all you'll feel is that stinging twinge of relief._

_(After each training session, when she was broken and bloody and whimpering on the floor, knowing that she would be expected to do better tomorrow, she would remind herself that evil was not genetic, and that she could find a way out of her destiny.)_

It was with a slow trepidation that she pried the door open. Her fingers shook with pent up tension as she pad softly down the hallway to the living room, her ears straining into the silence in the hopes of hearing something, anything, that would mean the apartment was occupied. She was not disappointed.

As she round the corner of the hallway, her eyes immediately fell on the small form of her mother, all but collapsed in her wheelchair with her eyes trained on the hall entrance. For a second, the two Crock women were frozen, neither quite believing what they saw. Then, as one, they moved forward and Artemis collapsed to the ground, her arms automatically wrapping around her mothers shaking body and her head falling to her lap, her eyes closed tight as they struggled to contain the tears threatening to fall. Paula herself kept nothing back as she held her daughter as close as she could, tears streaming down her weathered face and into Artemis' golden hair.

_(Even when she took her first life, she would whisper that it was all right. Because he could teach her and raise her anyway he liked, but in the end it was the way she used those lessons that really mattered.)_

"Cô con gái nhỏ của tôi ... chiến binh quý giá của tôi, làm thế nào tôi nhớ bạn ..."**(1)**

Her mother's worried whispers were the last straw. With a thick, shuddering sob the tears fell like rain, the archer's thin body trembling like a leaf in a storm; before she had time to think words were pouring from her mouth between each shaking breath, her voice cracking with emotion and anguish. "I'm so sorry…I'm sorry...Xin vui lòng, tha thứ cho tôi.**(2)**"

"What do you have to be sorry for, Artemis?" Paula smiled slightly into the archer's hair, stroking her back comfortingly. "Everything is alright, everything is fine. There is nothing to apologize for."

"I…I was so…" Artemis struggled, ashamed to admit what was weighing so heavily on her heart. "They were gone, all of them…And…I was glad…"

_(It was only when she saw the adults disappear, when her heart soared with joy even as billions of innocents vanished, that she finally told the truth to herself.)_

Paula froze, her mind racing to comprehend what her daughter was trying to say.

"All of them…Dad, and Jade, and the Joker and the Shadows…They were all gone and even though I knew that you and the League had vanished too…I was so happy…So happy that…That I wouldn't have to lie anymore, and wouldn't have to hide…I was so relieved…" She took another shuddering breath, pulling back from her mothers embrace to look into the older woman's eyes. "Even though my family, even though _you_, were gone…And there was a moment, when we were fighting Klarion, that I didn't _want_ to win. I didn't want to reunite the worlds because that would mean that all the villains, all the Shadows and Dad…It meant they would all be back and I would have to be the mole again. I was so selfish, because I don't…I don't want to play this part anymore…"

_(No matter how many promises she made, no matter how many times she reassured herself, she was still her father's daughter, and it wasn't genetics that dictated that.)_

Her tears were gone now but her body wouldn't quit shaking; she fell back on her knees, her legs folded underneath her and her elbows propped on her thighs, with her face buried in her calloused palms. "I…I'm just like him…Like them…I'm such a monster…"

And Paula can't bring herself to say anything against that, because no matter how much she wanted to deny it, Artemis was right.

_(Because blood may be thicker than water, but ideas never fade.)_

**A/N: Wow…That just came completely out of left field…**

**Yeah, definitely not my best piece of work, but my muse decided I didn't have enough OoC or depressing fics written, and then promptly sucker-punched me with this. So.**

**1: My little girl…My precious warrior, how I missed you…**

**2: ****Please, forgive me.**

**Good? Bad? Weird? Let me know! I'll make you snickerdoodles…:D**

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**Well, now that you're here, why not press the button?**


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